Assalamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh All praise and gratitude are due to Allah SWT. May the blessings and peace of Allah SWT be upon His Messenger PBUH.
Tawbah literally means “to return”. In the Islamic context, it means to reconcile and make better our relationship with Allah SWT. It is way to recognise and acknowledge Allah’s status as the Creator, and your status as the servant of the Creator. It was therefore practiced by the best of Allah’s creation. It was practiced by the angels in the story of Harut and Marut, as mentioned by Allah in Surah Al Baqarah, ayah 102. It was practiced by the Prophets of Allah, such as Prophet Adam (See Al-Baqarah 37; Al-Araf 23), Nuh (See Hud 47), Musa, (See Al-Qasas 16-17; Al-Araf 143), as well as Prophet Sulayman, Dawood and Muhammad PBUH. Abu Huraira once narrated, “I heard Allah’s Messenger (PBUH) saying: “By Allah! I ask for forgiveness from Allah and turn to Him in repentance more than seventy times a day”(Al-Bukhari: 6307).
The principle of Tawbah is best exemplified in the comparison of Prophet Adam AS and Iblees. While Adam AS acknowledged his mistake and asked for forgiveness from Allah, and so Allah favoured him, Iblees neglected his Tawbah whilst insisting upon his arrogance, and so Allah removed him from His mercy altogether.
Allah SWT says in Surah Al-Nur, ayah 31: “…Turn to Allah in repentance all together, O believers, so that you may be successful.” Tawbah is also the best criteria by which we judge the best of human beings who sin. The Prophet PBUH said, “All the sons of Adam are sinners, but the best of sinners are those who repent often” (Related by At-Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah).
Before answering this question, we need to remind ourselves of why we make mistakes and sin:
- Freedom of Choice. See Al-Kahf 29.
- Desires and Temptation. See Al-Nisaa 27-28 and Nawawi’s 40 Hadeeth: Hadeeth 41.
- Arrogance and Stubbornness. See Nuh 7; Sad 75-76.
- Ignorance and Backward Thinking. See Al-Araf 138, 140.
- Carelessness and Play. See Al Tawbah 65-66.
Tawbah is an invitation from Allah SWT for the sinners to come back to Allah and return to the right path, especially the believing sinners. To practice Tawbah for a specific sin there are a few obligations which must be fulfilled:
- To cease committing the sin, so as to show your seriousness in repentance. It does not make sense to repent while continuing a sin.
- To regret the sin, so as to show that you did not sin for the sake of sinning, but for some other reason such as lack of Iman or some carelessness. This is why your regret should be based on hating the sin, and not because of some adverse consequence of sinning (say, the embarrassment of being caught). This shows your sincerity in repentance. One should regret the sin because it is a sin, and not because some bad result came out of it
- To promise to never return to the sin in future. This shows commitment and determination to your repentance.
- To amend the harm caused by the sin. If you stole money, you repent and return the money wrongfully taken. If you backbite someone, you ask their forgiveness. This is how you ‘fix’ your sin. However, if the sin ought not to be revealed since it would make the situation worse, you should make dua’ for the target of your sin to forgive you on the Day of Judgement. Note that the sin will never be completely forgiven so long as the rights of another person are infringed. The stems from the principle. “He who causes harm to something is duty-bound to mend it”.
- The Tawbah should be done before the phase of ‘ghargharah’, which is where the soul reaches the throat during the moments before death. This is the expiration of the period in which repentance is accepted. The door of Tawbah is also closed when the Sun rises from the West, as this is when belief will not be accepted from those who declare it. See Al-Anaam 158.
- Finally, the person must be entirely sincere and aiming for the pleasure of Allah. One cannot truly repent if it is for the sake of another person.
These conditions should be applied in the repentance of specific, known sins.
As for repentance for the general sins, it will be forgiven by Wudhu and the five daily prayers, if they are minor sins. The Messenger of Allah PBUH said, “The five (daily) prayers and the Friday (prayer) to the Friday (prayer) expiate whatever (minor sins) may be committed in between, so long as major sins are avoided” (Riyad as-Salihin 1045).
However if it is a major sin we must ask Allah SWT forgiveness for all the major sins we have done, whether known or unknown. The Prophet PBUH used to say, “O Allah, I seek refuge in You lest I associate anything with You knowingly, and I seek Your forgiveness for what I know not.” (Ahmad 4/403).
To conclude, there is a beautiful advice worth narrating, based off the book of Al Tawwabeen for Ibn Qudama, who was a scholar. He narrated the story of a man who went to a scholar, Ibrahim Ibn Adham, and asked him for advice to help him stop sinning, especially with repetitious sins.
Ibn Adham advised him saying, “If you are able to fulfill one of the following five conditions, then do the sin as much as you want, and it will never harm you.”The man said, “What is the first?”Ibn Adham said, “If you would like to disobey Allah, do it but do not eat from his sustenance, as it does not make sense to disobey Him and eat from his sustenance.” The man said, “From what shall I eat, then, when everything on Earth is from Allah’s sustenance? What is the second?”Ibn Adham replied, “If you wish to disobey Allah, disobey as you wish but do not do it on His lands”.The man said, “How could it be when all land belongs to Allah? What is the third?”Ibn Adham replied, “Do the sin in a hidden place, where Allah cannot see you.”The man said, “How can I find such a place, when Allah sees all? What is the fourth?”Ibn Adham replied, “Disobey as you wish, and when the Angel of Death arrives to take your soul, do not give it to him, or at least ask him to delay you until you repent.”The man said, “How can I ask him that while I know that he does not delay people for even an hour? He is fulfilling Allah’s command with no say in the matter, and it has never been where a person has fled from the Angel of Death. Please give me the last.”Ibn Adham replied, “Disobey Allah as you wish while eating from his sustenance, doing the sin on His land, while He can see you, dying on time, but, when you meet Allah, and He orders the Angels of Jahannam to take you therein, do not go with them.”The man said, “But they will never listen to me nor accept that!”And so the man said, “How, then, can you seek salvation in the Hereafter?”The man said, “Enough, enough. I ask forgiveness of Allah.” The man continued to worship Allah until death.
We thank Allah SWT for His kindness. He never closes the door of Tawbah until it is truly too late. We should seize this opportunity by making our repentance daily, as Allah is the Most Forgiving, Most Kind, even in how he punishes. He punishes for the sin with one sin’s value, but rewards the good deed by at least 10 times its worth. Imam Al Hassan Al Basri said, “I am amazed by the person who’s one [good deed] defeated his ten [bad deeds]”.
Oh Allah, please help us to repent, and accept it from us when we do repent, as you love those who repent.
Ameen.